Abstract

President Barack Obama focused his campaign for health care reform on more than merely winning support; he also aimed to revitalize the very idea of public reason. It is for this reason that in the face of strident opposition from the Right and calls from the Left for him to renounce reasoned discourse that he redoubled his efforts to educate the people. Obama's efforts not only to sell his proposal but also to revitalize the idea of public reason at the heart of Madisonian democracy were not fully successful, but he demonstrated that reasoned argument remains a powerful force in American life.

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